Some of the previously proposed mowers are provided with separate power sources for propelling the mower and driving the cutting blade. JP4189272B discloses such a mower.
The mower disclosed in JP4189272B is a riding mower having a blade housing with an open bottom end, a cutting blade positioned in this blade housing and driven by an internal combustion engine, a pair of rear wheels positioned on either side of the rear end of the housing and a pair of hydraulic motors for driving the respective rear wheels. The mower is thus propelled by the hydraulic motors, and the cutting blade for mowing the grass is driven by the internal combustion engine.
A mower is often fitted with a grass collection bag on the rear end of thereof, and a chute extends from the blade housing to the grass collection bag to forward the cut grass clippings to the grass collection bag by using the air flow created by the rotating cutting blade.
The conventional mowers typically used an internal combustion engine for propelling the mower and driving the cutting blade, but there is a growing trend to use electric motors to drive the wheels while the cutting blade is driven by an engine. The electric motors require a battery, and this limits the space available for the fuel tank. Therefore, in a mower using electric motors for propelling the mower and an engine for driving the cutting blade, the positioning of the fuel tank in the mower is highly important for a successful design of the mower.